Engineering in Rome

Yesterday was a free day for us for our last day in Rome. The weather was amazing, it only rained for a little bit. January is a big sale month for shopping so some people went shopping and around the town. Some people left Rome by train to check out some ruins. At night a couple of us went to a soccer game to see the main region, Lazio play. They tied 1-1, but it was fun. This game was in the same stadium as the first soccer game we went to.

Today was a big travel day for us, the weather was not bad a little cloudy, but it did rain again. We left our lovely hotel Alimandi and got on a train to Siena When we arrived in Siena we got a tour of the town The tour guide who is from Siena told us all about their horse races they have in the main square. There are 17 districts of the town that compete. Only 10 can race every year. The next year the seven that didn’t race will race and they will draw between the other 10 to see what three will go again that year. Some how they bring in a bunch of sand for the horses to race on so that they do not hurt their hooves. On the corners of buildings you can see shields of the different districts to show where one district ends and another begins. We went to church Santa Maria Assunta, this church is different from the other churches we have seen in the past because it’s marble has layers of black and white. Another church we went to was called St. Catherine’s church. It was a little eerie because St. Catherine’s head and thumb are inside. We saw her preserved head and thumb, but we were not allowed to take pictures. She died in Rome so her body is there and her feet went to different places than the rest of her body.

After Siena we stopped to get a good view of a castle that is still standing today. Our tour coordinator, Claudio took us on a path through the mud and over a little ditch we had to jump over. Everyone’s shoes and pants got muddy. When we were done taking pictures, we went a different way that wasn’t as muddy and we joked around that we shouldn’t follow Claudio anywhere anymore. The next stop after this short pit stop was at San Gimignano. This town is fascinating because it’s a medieval town.

On the outskirts of San Gimignano we had our last adventure of the night. We ventured to a vineyard where they taught us how to taste wine and fed us dinner. The guy who owns the vineyard is very animated and made us all laugh. When we arrived he told us that wine is not only to drink, but wine is poetry, wine is fantasy, and wine is love. I believe most of the group learned a lot about how you are supposed to taste wine, instead of just drink it. The meal was delicious and below you can see pictures of the food we ate. There are so many things he taught us that it would take forever to write them all down. One of the things that was the most interesting to me was at the beginning before we had our main dinner we had plates in front of us with bread, cheese, meat and chips on it. After he told us how to drink the wine he told us to taste each of the different foods with the wines and see which food we like to eat best with which wine. He did this to prove that what I might like to eat with wine, the next person may not, it is up to you and your body, not about what is the best type of food with what type of wine.

Now I am typing from the bus ride, we will take this bus to Florence where our next hotel is We will spend a couple nights there. Word of the day: Vino which means wine. (pronounced vee noh).